Monday New England Patriots Links 11/22
There's plenty to talk about this morning after Patriots came up big against the Indianapolis on Sunday, handing Peyton Manning and the Colts a 31-28 loss at Gillette Stadium and improving to 8-2 on the season. So here's a look at the headlines this morning.
Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports writes that New England's defense came up big for head coach Bill Belichick, with safety Patrick Chung saying they're still "figuring it out".
“We got a chance to do something [Sunday] and we made it happen,” safety Patrick Chung said. “We’re young guys and we’re figuring it out. We still have a long way to go, but we’re getting there.”
Mary Paoletti of NECN writes that Sunday's game didn't live up to the standards of both Brady and Manning, with Manning coming up on the wrong end of this one.
"Three interceptions . . . it's just inexcusable against a good offense like that,'' he lamented. "Gave them short field on the first one. Especially in the second half, we're playing from behind and obviously it just killed the series.
"Got to the end and had a chance to win it and [it's] just . . . sickening that we never even got a chance to win the game.''
Mike Reiss takes a look at the offensive snaps of the tight ends yesterday, with rookie Aaron Hernandez coming in 3rd behind Rob Gronkowski and Alge Crumpler.
Sean Deveney of the Sporting News has an article on Manning, who was pretty upset after throwing three interceptions and coming up on the wrong end of a loss to the Patriots.
Amalie Benjamin of the Globe also has an article on Manning, who blamed himself for the loss.
“I’m just sick about not extending the game,’’ Manning said. “There’s just no excuse not to extend the game there.’’
Greg Bedard has a good article on New England's offense, which for the most part was near perfect on Sunday.
Mark Farinella of the Attleboro Sun Chronicle has a look at New England's defense, who after three interceptions brought the Patriots total to 13 on the season.
Farinella also has his take on the game, and felt it was "a throwback in it's own right" after the way the Patriots played.
Farinella has comments from Brady after the game, who wished it hadn't come down to their defense needing to make a play and instead would have liked to put some more points on the board.
Christopher Price of WEEI.com has his usual "Ten Things We Learned From Sunday", and it's a great read. Price mentions that as this one came down to the wire, most of the players were thinking about how last year's match-up ended - but thankfully this one turned out differently.
Monique Walker writes that the defense saved its best for last, pointing out that Jerod Mayo did his best yesterday to remind everyone throughout that they needed to keep making plays because despite the lead - the Colts were far from out of it.
Dan Shaughnessy has a column this morning on yesterday's game and hopes that they never take Indianapolis off the Patriots' schedule.
Monique Walker has an article on runningback Danny Woodhead, who ran the ball well yesterday and also made plays on special teams.
“That’s my job, I play on the kickoff team and when I went out on the field I tried to do everything possible to get to the returner,’’ Woodhead said. “I am going to do everything possible on every single play whether it’s on special teams, on offense, or first, second, or third down or whatever.’’
Dan Duggan of the Boston Herald has the play of the game, which was obviously James Sanders' interception - and Duggan has comments from Sanders, along with Belichick and Jermaine Cunnnigham on the play.
Karen Guregian has a look at the defense, which bent but didn't break Sunday against Indianapolis.
Ian Rapoport of the Herald has an article on Sanders, and writes that the safety wasn't even supposed to be in on that play, but dropped off his man after reading Manning's eyes and made the interception.
Rapoport also writes that the Patriots have come of age after beating a tough Colts team thanks to big plays from their young defense.
Tom Curran of NECN has a column from yesterday's game and feels the Patriots were able to get redemption against Manning & Co.
Mike Rodak of ESPNBoston.com has an article on Darius Butler and Kyle Arrington, who he feels have both managed to establish roles on defense.
Ron Borges writes that the Patriots were able to put Manning and the Colts in their place and "survived the siege" in Foxboro yesterday.
And finally Steve Buckley has a column on Woodhead this morning, who he feels has defintely achieved notoriety here in New England among the fans.
That's it for now. We'll have more throughout the day so be sure to check back later on for updates.
